This is a blog about our new life living down here in Cornwall. We walked the South West coast path over two months in summer 2011 and had moved down to live in Cornwall eight weeks later. I think it was us who were the most surprised

Monday, 13 August 2012

Chapter Fifty Two

The Tregony Heavy Horse Show.
This proved to be a great fun day out and we enjoyed ourselves very much. The weather was warm and sunny although a vast amount of cloud came over during the afternoon. In fact; the rain poured down in the evening just after the show must have finished. Very lucky for one and all.
It is just a couple of weeks now before Linda and I go on our holiday to Hadrians Wall. We are looking forward to walking across the country alongside the wall. A couple of years ago we did the Wainwright walk from St Bees to Robins Hood Bay (West to East), and now we are walking Hadrians Wall from Newcastle upon Tyne to the Solway Firth (East to West).
Incredible as it may seem I am actually in the peak of condition after almost a year of being a bag man in the wilds of Cornwall. I can now take steep hills in my stride and can walk for long distances without a problem. It is Linda, more desk and office bound these days, who is no longer at the peak of fitness.
That she is fitter than the average person goes without saying, but she has lost some of the toning that regular walking brings. On the strength of that, we chose to walk to Tregony from our place and then return. This gave us a round trip of about six miles.
We set off just after ten on Sunday morning and strode out of the village. The litter bugs have been out in force once more and I regretted not bringing a carrier bag with me. By the time we got to the Tregony Bridge and the first litter bin my hands and arms were full of paper, cans, glass and plastic bottles. Sadly, the blame has to be spread about a bit because the visitors are not here in the winter and there can be a lot of rubbish around then as well.
The show ground was alive with noise and excitement when we got there and we soon got heavily involved with all that was going on. As I said in the previous chapter I managed to find the NCI tent and got the information from there that I needed.

Linda found the dogs that were sitting in the back of the van waiting their turn in the ring. Between the shetland pony class and the heavy horse class they have a couple of demonstrations of how sheep dogs work.
These are all the dogs owned by one sheep farmer in the area and very entertaining it all was. There was a great laugh when the sheep had had more than enough of being chased around the arena; in the blink of an eye they spotted a gap in the crowd and disappeared never to be seen again.
They took so long to be rounded up that they brought in the dogs herding geese and ducks as a standby event. That was very skilful too, as the shepherd herded flocks of these birds through obstacles and the like. Very clever.
In another corner of the ground was an encampment of celtic warriors. They were very impressive and gave very good demonstrations of clothing, equipment, and fighting from celtic times. It seem's that 'putting the boot in' stems from the olden days when you had to make sure the enemy did not get back up behind you and kill you. The final kick in the side or to the head was designed to see if the victim was still alive. Because it is such a vicious and brutal thing to do, if the victim is still alive he will respond by a jerking movement or sharp intake of breath. If he did that the victor would stick a knife or sword into him to finish him off.
How sad these days that our so called 'great street fighters' who go out looking for trouble, invariably use this method of fighting as the very first resort. It can be a fatal blow.

These blokes looked more than capable of taking care of themselves and each and every one of them handled axes, knives, and swords as if born to it. Especially that guy in the light blue shirt, third from left. When he started to swing that great big axe round and round...I ran like a deer. I should have been in the olympics if he'd been my coach.
The high spot of the day for both Linda and I were the heavy horses. Both of us have a soft spot for these wondeful animals. Such gentle giants and such beautiful creatures. I was so spellbound that I forgot to take any pictures of them at all.

We returned home later in the day and walked into our garden past the 'Hanging Gardens of Lindylon'. Though it worries me when Linda puts water in the baskets; I'm always afraid the weight will pull them out of the wall; they have remained in place since I put them up there. I'm quite proud of that.
Finally in the evening, we had our own version of the great escape. Linda bought a small hutch to sit in the run for the guinea pigs. They have found it hard to master the slope leading up to their sleeping hutch so she got them a hutch to sleep in during the day.

This hutch stands at the back of the run and keeps them out of the weather...especially if wet. They can get sores if they lay on wet grass for to long. Linda wanted the run moved across to give them fresh grass to eat. Spotting Widget in the hutch and with no sign of Whiskey, she shut the door.
We carried the run across to its new site and Linda went back to lift up the hutch. She carried it over and put it down in the run. As she turned around she spotted Whiskey lying on the grass, underneath were the hutch had been.
And then he was off. Tearing across the lawn like a mad guinea he headed for the hedge. He had a look on his face that said 'There's a great big world out there and I'm going for a look. Goodbye'
I don't think he realised how quick Linda can move when she wants to. With all the grace of a startled deer and with all the focus of an arrow...she launched herself across the lawn and caught him inches before the hedge. I don't think he knew what hit him.
One minute its the hedge and the great wide beyond; seconds later its the wire and his hutch. It all happened so fast that Widget didn't even guess he had almost gone. We could guess that because she never scolded him which is her normal routine.
They are settled in now and are a welcome addition to the family.
I have to confess to being something of a child the other day. It seemed only right and proper to behave like a complete smug twit. The whole thing was very childish...but oh, so rewarding. It all started on my way home from Truro the other evening. I had just put in a twelve hour duty and I was a little tired. Coming up the road out of the city I had a sporty type of car practically up my exhaust pipe. I couldn't see his number plate for most of the journey home because he was so close.
Bearing in mind I was in a long line of traffic with no room for overtaking, his driving was a bit excessive. He kept dropping back and then surging right up behind me. Was it because I had stayed infront of him after passing him out as we came down the main road from Three mile stone. If he'd read the road correctly he wouldn't have got himself trapped in the wrong lane in the first place and I wouldn't have overtaken him.
All I could see in my rear view mirror was four faces alternately scowling or laughing in my direction.
Eventually after all this silly going's on, we finally got to a bit of a dual carriageway on a hill. The car then shot past me with the passengers practically hanging out of the windows, before the driver swerved back in front of me and applied his brakes. He must have thought I came down in the last shower, the idiot, because I was already slowing as I had anticipated that bit of old nonsense. He then tore off and I followed himup the road.
He must have been a tourist because the four of them paused from the gestures out of the window, to check for road signs.
Finally they turned off on the Tregony road, and as I followed them, blasted off . You can't drive to fast on this road as its a twisty old lane in places. I must have been 100 yards behind them when they shot around the corner and kept going. That's when I got my idea. The road at this point resembles a giant letter A . In effect, they had now shot up the right hand leg to the point at the top, before then following the road down the left hand leg to the bottom; so I nipped along the cut through which would be the bar of the letter A.
Looking back up the road when I got through the cut through I could see them coming down the road. As they disappeared around the last bend before me I pulled out and chugged along the road to the bridge. You should have seen the look on their faces as they slowed down and pulled up behind me. It was so very childish I know...but it made my day. They looked so aghast, so stunned, then so angry... I laughed 'til I cried. Don't judge me to harshly. It had been a long day and they really deserved to be taken down a peg or two. I made them follow me along the now even narrower twisty road for about a couple of miles before I shot off down a side lane and went home.
No harm was done except for four ego's getting burst and the only danger had been when that clown had kept climbing up my exhaust pipe earlier on.
Silly I know, and childish, I agree...but the satisfaction at seeing their faces will stay with me for ever.
I can only apologise to you all.